Neji's Quest
by pink-dress
Summary: Neji likes Hinata. Sound simple? Actually, it's not. It seems that every guy in Konoha likes her too, and Neji must compete with them all in order to win her love, with the help of Hanabi. Will he succeed? . . . not likely.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 1: Neji Likes Hinata

It was a lovely day in the village of Konoha. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the flowers were smelling. Most of the young shinobi of the village were out with their friends and family, enjoying the fine weather. All except for a certain young man.

Neji Hyuuga, also known as the genius of the Hyuuga clan, had chosen to spend the day alone in his room. He was not one for spending his time on such frivolous things as friends and having fun, and had decided instead to write in his journal, where he carefully kept a record of everything important that happened to him. Today's entry went a little something like this:

Thursday 10

I am staying inside today as I cannot bear the presence of my foolish comrades, however I may go outside later on for some training. Training is the most important thing anybody could spend their time doing, especially more important than _having fun_ and _going shopping_ and _eating ramen_. Of course, as the Hyuuga genius I must set an example to the others as to how a real ninja should behave.

Yesterday Sakura and Ino managed to persuade everyone to go on a picnic. Lee and Tenten dragged me along, otherwise I wouldn't have even considered going. It was a complete waste of time. Sakura and Ino spent the whole time arguing and trying to catch Sasuke's attention, Shino's bugs and Akamaru got into the food which made Chouji have a tantrum, and nobody wanted to even hear anything about training. There was a bit of excitement when Naruto and Sasuke started fighting. Sadly Sakura, Lee and Shikamaru stopped it before they could kill each other.

The only agreeable thing about it was that Lady Hinata was there. I was trying to talk to her but she kept getting distracted by Naruto and his childish antics. He's such an idiot and he never trains either. Nothing like Lady Hinata, of course. Lady Hinata is -

And there it stopped. Neji was unsure of what to write next, his pen still gripped in his hand.

Lady Hinata - he always insisted on calling her Lady Hinata, even in his mind - was many things. Many wonderful, lovely things that were sadly, too wonderful and lovely for Neji to even begin to describe. As he peered down at the half-blank page in his journal, Neji dimly realised that he was not used to writing nice things about people. He sighed. He would have to give this some thought.

"Neji?"

He began writing again. 'Lady Hinata is. . . very nice and pretty' "No, that is not nearly good enough." He crossed it out.

"Neji, where are youuuuuuu?"

"What about . . .'Lady Hinata is a strong and courageous kunoichi' . . . no, that's stretching the truth a bit far."

"Neji! Where are you?!"

"I wonder. . .'Lady Hinata is . . . as beautiful as the lotus that blooms twice'. He examined this last sentence for a moment, before nodding to himself. '_Yes, that will do for now_.' He sat back in his chair triumphantly.

"NEJI!"

"WHAT?!" Neji screamed back, before he realized he was yelling at his eight year-old cousin. "Uh, I mean, what's wrong, Hanabi?"

Hanabi folded her arms. "You were ignoring me, that's what's wrong! You know you're not supposed to ignore main family members, Neji."

"I apologize for my behaviour, but as you can see, I am rather busy right now," Neji said through gritted teeth. '_And must you constantly remind me that I am little more than a servant in this household_?'

"What are you doing anyway?" she asked, peering over Neji's shoulder. "Is that- a _diary_?"

Neji quickly covered it with his arms. "No."

Hanabi tried to grab it, but he swatted her arm away. "It's nothing you need to see, Hanabi. Don't you have any respect for other people's privacy?"

"Aha!" Hanabi looked smug. "If it's private, then it must be a diary."

"Your logic is flawed. It could have been a secret document regarding a mission. You should know that, if you're so keen on becoming a ninja."

"A secret doc-u-ment?" Hanabi looked like she was thinking hard. Neji often liked to use long words to confuse his youngest cousin. "If it was about a mission, why is Hinata's name on there?"

"Uh, it was. . . she was on the mission as well."

"But you've not been on any missions together for ages," Hanabi pointed out. She narrowed her eyes. "Are you lying to me?"

'_YES!_' "No Hanabi, I'm not lying." He lazily lifted up his left arm and waved it in the direction of the door. "Now will you leave me alone, I have some very important work to-ah!" Hanabi had snatched the diary clean out of his hands.

"Give me that!" he yelled, trying to snatch it back. Hanabi however dodged him easily and began reading.

"Ugh, are you still calling her 'Lady' Hinata? It makes her sound so silly."

Neji swiped at her again, but missed. "Nobody asked for your opinion!" he snarled.

"Very nice and pretty? Why was that crossed out?" she asked, dodging Neji again by jumping on his bed.

He wished dearly that he could use a bit of force, he was that desperate to retrieve his journal. "Never you mind!"

"As beautiful as the lotus that blooms twice?" She wrinkled her nose. "That sounds so lame. Do you fancy her or something?"

"No!" he shouted, a little too quickly. "No I- what do you mean, lame?"

Her face lit up. "You do fancy her!"

Neji tried his best to look haughty. "I don't believe that it's any of your business-"

Hanabi giggled. "You do like her! You like Hinata! You like Hinata! You like Hinata!" She began jumping up and down, chanting in a way that young children are often prone to do when overexcited about something or other. "You like Hinata, you like Hinata, you like-"

"Look, just calm down will you!" he hissed, grabbing her arm and pulling her closer to him. Hanabi was the last person he would've wanted to find out about his secret, even including Hinata herself. "I don't want you spreading this about, you hear me? Especially not to Lord Hiashi."

"But why?" Hanabi asked, confused. "Father would be so happy if you two got married!" She looked delighted at the idea of a wedding. "I could be a _bridesmaid_!" She started jumping up and down enthusiastically again.

"No!" he whispered urgently. "No, you cannot tell anyone, Hanabi!"

Hanabi looked thoughtful. "Not even Hinata?"

In his mind, Neji was strangling Hanabi for her inherent stupidity. He tried to calm himself down, however. "No," he replied in a controlled voice. "We'll . . . keep it as our little secret, ok?" he said, trying to translate it into terms that would appeal to Hanabi. She seemed to like the idea. "Ok!" she grinned, staring at her older cousin.

"Alright then," he said. Hanabi continued to stare at him. He sighed. "What?"

"Well aren't we going to do something about it?" she asked. "We have to let your feelings be known!"

Neji shook his head. "I told you, I'm not telling her."

"But Neji!" she whined. Sometimes she could get just as exasperated with him, as he did with her. "If you don't let your love for Hinata" - here she paused to sigh dreamily- "be known, then someone else might snatch her away from you! You have to do something to let everyone know that she's yours!"

"Nobody else likes her," he said bluntly. '_The only person who might return her feelings is Naruto, and he barely notices her as it is._'

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you," Hanabi said, wagging her finger at him. "She's always thought that Shino had a bit of an eye for her. She told me so before."

"Shino?" Neji's fists clenched slightly at the thought of Hinata's teammate. "I always thought he looked a bit shifty, actually," he declared.

"You see what I mean? You have to tell him to BACK OFF! And you have to yell it like that, too."

Neji sighed. It had been much easier to daydream about Lady Hinata and imagine that Fate would bring them together eventually, than to actually go out and do something about his infatuation. But then again, he didn't like the idea of somebody else feeling the same way about her. If anybody should get her, it should be a Hyuuga genius. . . such as himself.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Hanabi cried. She grabbed Neji's hand and started dragging him out of his room. "Let's go find Shino and tell him to STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER!"


End file.
